Questioning The Meaning of Life by Taking "Real Pictures" of Minority Groups
Kunihiro Suzuki
(Photographer)
The following photos are some of my works featuring refugees in Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Croatia, Bosnia Hercegovina and Slavonia. I saw something common in all refugee camps I visited in these countries. It was a "desire to live". When you hear the word "refugees", you might automatically associate it with "death". But those people in refugee camps fled from their own countries, crossing the borders, in order to live. As they remained in those refugee camps for over a year, they began to experience the ordinary events of life such as the marriage of new couples and childbirth. They sometimes laughed, sometimes cried and were desperately utrying to live nder difficult conditions when there seemed to be no hope for the future. I saw "the real pictures of living people" in them. I would like to question the meaning of life by taking photographs of the "real pictures" of them.
Somalian refugees Rwanda refugees Bhutan refugees The formaer Yugoslavian refugees
(Muslim woman)


[ Personal History ]

1959 Born in Fukushima.
1984 Graduated from Department of Commercial Science, Nihon University.
1985 Graduated from Nihon Shashin Geijutsu Senmon Gakko (Photographic Art School).
Became a pupil of Kenji Higuchi.
Started working as a free-lance photographer mainly for magazines.
1990 Became an instructor at Nihon Shashin Geijutsu Senmon Gakko
1992 Became an instructor at Musashino Bijitsu Daigaku


[ Main Works ]

Works which appeared in magazines:
  • "Black bonds in the ordered society" -- a series of photos featuring homeless people in Tokyo ("Ningen" November, 1986 -- a photograph magazine published in Taiwan)
  • "Arrested Chinese People" ("Asahi Graph" July, 1987)
  • "Arrested Chinese People" ("Ningen" July, 1987)
  • "A People Who Eat Gorillas" -- a series of photos featuring the Pygmies in Africa ("AERA" February, 1989)
  • "CAMP: Portraits of Refugees" ("Nihon Camera", November 1995)
Books
  • A Voyage on the Amazon (Diamond, 1991)


[ Exhibitions ]

  • "PYGMY: A People of Forests" at the Ginza Nikon Salon, June, 1993
  • "PYGMY: A People of Forests" at the Ginza Nikon Salon, December, 1993 (commemorating the photographer's receipt of The Ina Nobuo Award)
  • "PYGMY: A People of Forests" at the Osaka Nikon Salon, January, 1994 (commemorating the photographer's receipt of The Ina Nobuo Award)
  • "CAMP: Portrait of Refugees" at the Ginza Nikon Salon, November 1995.


[ Award ]

  • Received the 18th Ina Nobuo Award with "PYGMY: A People of Forests" (the Ginza Nikon Salon) in June, 1993.